On February 13, 1861, delegates representing all counties in Virginia
met to decide how the state would respond to recent events, especially
Abraham Lincoln's election and South Carolina's secession. They voted
to remain in the Union and hoped that a compromise could be reached to
defuse the situation. Two months later, the same men voted to secede
from the United States, sparking a radically different war than might
otherwise have taken place. Secession: Virginia and the Crisis
of Union links the fully transcribed text of these debates with
a wealth of contextual information, giving users the tools to ask why
the men who brought the war into their own counties and neighborhoods
did so.

In February 1861, delegates from every county in Virginia gathered in Richmond to vote on whether to secede from the United States. Most delegates--and most Virginia voters--wanted to remain in the Union. Two months later, Virginia seceded. Begin searching to find out why.

Secession: Virginia and the Crisis of Union is an interactive, digital edition of the Proceedings of the Virginia Convention of 1861. The Library of Virginia published a four-volume, bound version of this text in 1965.